2009 - Sunshine State Awards/South Florida Society of Professional Journalists, published December 18, 2008

2014 Stories by Tim Elfrink

FEATURED STORY

published Dec 29, 2014

The small municipality of Sweetwater has been no stranger to big controversy. Its last mayor was whacked by the FBI for taking a $40,000 bribe, and rumors soon swirled afterward that the feds were sta...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 26, 2014

After all the hand-wringing debate about how Heat fans would deal with defector LeBron James' return to the AA Arena -- Would they boo? Would they jeer? Would they rain flaming Molotov cocktails upon ...
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published Dec 24, 2014

Growing up in Miami in the 1960s, Mitch Novick remembers cruising along Collins Avenue and gaping at a gold-and-blue tinted mosaic. "It really is a spectacular mosaic," says Novick.
So when Novick he...
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published Dec 24, 2014

A few years back, Florida passed a law allowing religious displays in public buildings. The legislators' idea, as you might imagine, was mangers and crosses at Christmastime. But under the letter of t...
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published Dec 23, 2014

This year marked the first-ever Miami Beach Bowl, a profoundly mis-named college football game that actually takes place inside Marlins Park, about 10 miles away from its barrier island namesake.
Bad...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 19, 2014

In September 2006, the crime that sparked one of the darkest sagas in Miami-Dade Public Schools history happened in a Northwestern High School bathroom. That's where the school's star 18-year-old quar...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 18, 2014

A federal judge told him to drop the plan. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals told him it was illegal. Then the U.S. Supreme Court refused to listen to his arguments.
But despite losing over and over...
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published Dec 17, 2014

The 1987 University of Miami Hurricanes team is justly famous for any number of reasons. Michael Irvin. Brian Blades. Swagger. An undefeated campaign and an infamous comeback over FSU.
But that seas...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 16, 2014

Up until October, developer Jeff Berkowitz's audacious plan for a 1,000-foot tall tower on the bay front had sailed through with scant opposition from politicians or residents. The city commission qui...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 16, 2014

Spirit Airlines is no stranger to complaints. From its tiny seats and crippling pilot strike to advertising campaigns that have used devastating oil spills, MILFs, and prostitution scandals to hawk ti...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 15, 2014

There are a few unmistakable signs that a candidate is about to declare his run for the White House. His travel schedule is suddenly peppered with appointments in small-town Iowa and New Hampshire. He...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 12, 2014

A complaint that began with towing companies grumbling at a city commission meeting about "pirate" drivers stealing their city-approved jobs has reportedly blossomed into a mass FBI probe of Miami cop...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 12, 2014

For years, Adam Meyer has occupied a unique space on the local sports scene. A "sports handicapper," he boasted he could predict which team would win 60 percent of the time, and through his Real Money...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 11, 2014

For more than a decade, hip-hop has risen as a cultural force in Cuba, giving voice to a discontented generation's frustrations with the fossilized Castro regime. The underground scene has become a ra...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 11, 2014

For shoppers in most of the country, Black Friday is a chance to dive-bomb the mall to load up on price-slashed Christmas gifts, clothes for the new year or that laptop that's been too expensive to un...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 10, 2014

Update: A witness reached by New Times disputes the police version of events. Danny Garcia, a friend who was with Demz that night, says there's no way he had time to disappear down a side street befor...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 08, 2014

In the wake of this weekend's boisterous protests that twice shut down 195 and clogged streets from Wynwood to Midtown, Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa sat down with Michael Putney on Channel 10 last ...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 07, 2014

For downtown-area commuters, the peak weekend of Art Basel is ending this afternoon much like it began: With 195 shut in both directions by protesters participating in the #shutitdown movement against...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 05, 2014

A protest against the lack of indictments in Ferguson and New York City -- as well as the killing of local teen Israel Hernandez by Miami Beach police -- quickly moved from Wynwood to the 195 expressw...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 05, 2014

Update: Delbert Rodriguez Gutierrez, AKA Demz, died of his injuries on Wednesday, December 10. A witness reached by New Times also disputes the police version of events. Danny Garcia, a friend who was...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 04, 2014

When Miami cop Reynoldo Goyos shot and killed an unarmed man named Travis McNeil at a traffic stop three years ago, the Miami PD left no doubt about the killing's propriety. Miami PD's chief promptly ...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 02, 2014

In May 2012, the nation first caught wind of "bath salts" thanks to the "Miami Cannibal" attack. In the hours after Rudy Eugene chewed the face off homeless man Ronald Poppo near the MacArthur Causewa...
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FEATURED STORY

published Dec 01, 2014

It's a bad time to be skirting the rules about harvesting endangered coral and live rock in the Keys. A multi-year investigation called "Operation Rock Bottom" has already netted more than half a doze...
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published Dec 01, 2014

On Black Friday, 18-year-old Pedro Uriarte snagged a new pair of Beats headphones. On Sunday afternoon, he tried out the new headphones while walking near Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School on NW ...
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FEATURED STORY

published Nov 26, 2014

In this week's Miami New Times, we profile 30 of the most interesting characters in town, with portraits of each from photographer Stian Roenning. See the entire Miami New Times People Issue here.
If...
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